Doctoral Dissertation Spinning Climate Change: How Social Groups use Media, Science, and PR to Engage the American Public

这篇论文由科学与社会计划资助，将调查美国公众参与性质的变化，特别是与媒体、环境、科学权威和公共关系有关的问题。这项研究将特别关注四个社会团体，他们试图让美国公众了解应对气候变化的紧迫性和所需采取的行动：1)因纽特环极地会议，它与美国环境组织密切合作，向美洲人权委员会提出关于美国在遏制温室气体排放方面不作为的人权主张；2)福音派气候倡议，由松散关联的多教派基督教团体组成，试图基于道德和科学要求的结合来动员美国基督徒；3)CERES，一个由“环保主义者和投资者”组成的非营利性网络组织，“与芝加哥气候交易所合作，揭露和安排企业和行业在积极减少温室气体排放方面的责任，以及4)飓风和气候科学家根据与气候变化有关的预测和研究介入公共辩论和沿海开发监管的努力。这些组织在正式的政府或政策框架以及主流环保运动之外运作，每个组织都在寻求通过在一个问题上展示人类、法律、道德、金融或科学的面孔来“重新构建”气候变化的框架。直到最近，尽管自20世纪80年代以来主流媒体进行了报道，但这个问题一直处于环境问题的底层。通过绘制这些社会群体的地域和交叉点，这项研究将提供对复杂的科学和科学政策辩论的沟通的洞察力，揭示科学和主流媒体在可信度、专业知识和权威方面的裂痕，以及从许多参与者的角度来看，已经取代了“事实”的“旋转”和公共关系的存在。因此，这项研究提供了一个明确的案例研究，说明了环境话语的灵活性，媒体变化和碎片化在公开科学问题方面的不断演变的作用，并说明了科学内部为防止科学沦为“自吹自擂”和公关而进行的斗争。这项研究将以新颖的方式将媒体与科学的人类学纳入对话，从而对科学技术研究(STS)、媒体研究以及媒体与科学的人类学做出重要贡献。这样做将为媒体变革、环保主义、民主参与和社会运动的研究提供至关重要的跨学科洞察。气候变化为理解提供了一个丰富的概念场所：a)美国公共辩论是如何被调解、驱动和重新定向的；b)美国主流媒体不断变化的性质及其作为所谓第四阶层的半自主角色；c)转向科学家和记者对事实的倡导和/或验证；以及d)从商业领域蔓延到公民生活中的无处不在的公共关系，吸收社会运动和政府组织。因此，对于致力于气候变化和其他复杂科学和科学政策辩论的记者、科学家、政策制定者和活动家来说，这项研究提供了关于如何以及什么塑造公众参与的宝贵见解。NSF的资助将使继续并完成对这些地理上分散的社会群体的多地点调查成为可能。它将主要用于旅费和住宿费，以便与选定社会群体的主要行为者和发言人进行深入访谈。

This dissertation, funded by the Science and Society Program, will investigate the changing nature of public engagement in the U.S., specifically as it relates to media, the environment, scientific authority, and public relations. The study will focus specifically on four social groups who are seeking to inform the American public of the urgency and action needed regarding climate change: 1) the Inuit Circumpolar Conference which has worked closely with American environmental groups to bring a human rights claim before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding U.S. inaction on curbing greenhouse gas emissions, 2) the Evangelical Climate Initiative, comprised of loosely affiliated multi-denominational Christian groups that are attempting to mobilize American Christians based on combinations of moral and scientific imperatives, 3) efforts by Ceres, a non-profit network organization comprised of "environmentalists and investors," in conjunction with the Chicago Climate Exchange to expose and marshal corporate and industry responsibilities regarding the proactive reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and 4) efforts by hurricane and climate scientists to intervene in public debate and the regulation of coastal development based on climate change-related predictions and research. Operating outside formal government or policy frameworks and the mainstream environmental movement, each of these groups is looking to "reframe" climate change by putting a human, legal, moral, financial, or scientific face on an issue that has, until very recently, languished at the bottom of environmental concerns despite mainstream media coverage since the 1980s. By mapping the terrain and intersections of these social groups, this study will offer insight into the communication of complex scientific and science-policy debates, revealing fractures in credibility, expertise, and authority for both science and mainstream media, as well as the presence of "spin" and public relations that has, from the perspective of many actors, acted to supplant "the facts of the matter." As such, this study provides a clear case study of the flexibility of environmental discourse, the evolving role of media change and fragmentation in making scientific issues public, and an account of the struggles within science to prevent science from being reduced to "spin" and public relations. This study will make an important contribution to Science and Technology Studies (STS), media studies, and anthropologies of media and science by bringing them into dialogue in novel ways. Doing so will offer crucial interdisciplinary insight into studies of media change, environmentalism, democratic engagement, and social movements. Climate change provides a rich conceptual site for understanding: a) how U.S. public debate is mediated, driven, and redirected, b) the changing nature of mainstream American media and its semi-autonomous role as a so-called fourth estate, c) the turn towards advocacy and/or authentication of facts by scientists and journalists, and d) the ubiquitous, pervasive presence of public relations that has spread from commercial sectors throughout civic life, enrolling social movements and governmental organizations. Thus, for journalists, scientists, policy-makers, and activists working on climate change and other complex science and science-policy debates, this study provides valuable insight into how and what shapes public engagement. NSF funding will enable continuing and completing a multi-sited investigation of these geographically dispersed social groups. It will be used primarily for travel and accommodation costs to conduct in-depth interviews with primary actors and spokespersons for the selected social groups.